


Arc 1 - Buying a Hound

by Joe_Reaves



Series: Huminals [9]
Category: Empire Records (1995)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not Human, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Animals, Established Relationship, Family, Kid Fic, M/M, Master/Slave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-14
Updated: 2010-04-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 22:58:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joe_Reaves/pseuds/Joe_Reaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eddie comes up with an idea for a nanny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arc 1 - Buying a Hound

"Joe," Eddie said quietly, making him jump because he had thought he was alone.

He ran a hand over his face. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry, boss," he apologised, changing skin colour so that he could be seen more easily. "I forget sometimes."

"No, don't worry about it," Joe told him. "I'm a wolf. I don't need my eyes to tell me you're here; I should have been paying more attention." He smiled at him. Eddie was by far the least confident member of his pack as well as the newest and he didn't want to scare him off. "Did you need something?"

Eddie nodded and then shook his head. "Well, kind of. I mean I don't need anything but I had an idea and I wanted to see what you thought."

Joe sat down behind his desk and leant back, folding his hands behind his head. "Go on then. Let me hear it." He smiled encouragingly.

"I was at the market today and they have a livestock market as well as a slave one," he said. "Did you know that? I'd never seen it before. They sell all kind of domesticated animals. But there's one guy there selling hounds."

"Really?" Joe said, leaning forwards and looking interested. "I didn't think there were any breeders in the city. Mostly they sell them to farmers. How many did he have?"

"Several cages full," Eddie told him. "Looked like at least three different litters. I thought maybe you and Lucas would like one to help with the pups so I asked him to hold one for me. Was that OK?"

Joe bounced out of his seat. "It was a brilliant idea. Thank you, Eddie. I'll go and find Lucas and see if we can pick it up before the market closes tonight. Of course Berko might not think it's such a good plan," he added with a grin. "He says there are getting to be too many canines and lupines in this pack already, although I think he counts the pups as felines so we're technically still outnumbered by the cats."

Lucas was excited by the idea of buying a hound. He'd heard of them, but he'd never seen one before. "How intelligent are they?" he asked. "Is it just like a smart dog like the humans say or is it going to be much more like us?"

"They're sort of halfway between smart animals and huminals," Joe said thoughtfully. "They can't speak because they're dogs with human DNA instead of humans with animal DNA so they have the physiology of a dog, but they are much much smarter. They can usually read and they don't just follow commands, they think for themselves. So if we left the puppens with it and told it to look after them, it would be able to do anything that was needed to do that. Obviously it has paws, not hands, so it can't cook or do anything like that, but you can buy adaptations for electronic gadgets so they can be used by hounds. We could set the security system up so it could use it if we wanted or the stereo or the computers, anything it needs to use really."

Lucas grinned and leant against Joe. "That would be perfect. It would mean I could go back to helping Deb in the school without you or Berko having to give up any sleep. I'm so glad Eddie found this guy."

By now they could see the cages with the hounds in them. Joe reckoned they were about two years old, well past the age where they were weaned and old enough for them to be given responsible jobs. In human years they would be teenagers. They matured quickly, like dogs, but then aged much slower than normal dogs. A hound could live for twenty to thirty years provided they were well looked after.

"Go and have a look at them while I talk to the seller," he suggested.

Lucas ran over to one of the cages and crouched down, talking softly. "I have four babies that need a nanny," he told them. "Would one of you like to work for me? I know humans think you're just dumb animals, but they still think that about me too. I don't want to buy a hound who doesn't want to be part of my pack."

The hounds looked at him and then started making low sounds. Lucas was surprised; they were communicating with one another. He hadn't known they could do that. A large grey female walked over and sat in front of him.

"You're volunteering?" he asked her and smiled when she very deliberately nodded her head. "Good. Let me talk to my mate and then we'll bring you home with us." He looked at the others a little sadly. "I wish we could buy all of you; I feel bad leaving you here."

Joe overheard the last comment and mentally calculated how much spare money they had to spend on hounds before talking to the dealer again. The man was surprised that anyone would want six hounds, but Joe convinced him that they were a gift for some country relatives of his and the dealer delightedly agreed to the sale. He'd been having a hard job selling them in the city and he was happy to get rid of the last few. Joe suggested he market the next batch to huminals instead of humans. The free huminals usually avoided the livestock market because of its proximity to the slave market, so most of them wouldn't have known he was even here. His intended market, humans, had proven to be far more nervous around the big, smart dogs than he'd expected but according to Joe, huminals prized them very highly as guards and for looking after children. He would advertise in the huminal quarter of the city next time and hope business picked up; otherwise he'd have to ship them out to a market in the country somewhere and that could be expensive.

Lucas jumped as Joe wrapped his arms around him from behind. "We're buying all six of them," Joe said quietly.

Smiling happily, Lucas spun around and kissed him. "You hero! Thank you so much. I didn't want to leave them in the market but I didn't think we could afford it."

"Well, we'll have to hold off on redecorating the bedrooms for a couple more months now, but I thought this was a good investment," Joe said, smiling at him. "You can choose which one stays with the pack and I'll send the rest to Mac."

Lucas crouched down again. "Did you hear that? You're all coming with us." He smiled. "My brother in law lives out on the Savannah and he would love to have the rest of you to help protect his pack. I'll explain more later."

Gesturing to the female who had approached him earlier he raised his voice and called out to the dealer. "What's her name?"

"That's Faramir," the dealer told him. "The only female in this litter. She's good with babies if that's what you want her for. She used to help out with the younger puppies back at the breeding ranch but she hasn't had any of her own yet."

"Thank you," Lucas said with a nod.

The dealer offered them leashes but Joe shook his head. "They'll come with us without those. They know better than to wander off."

He pulled Lucas into his arms again and smiled at the hounds. "Welcome to my pack, Faramir. I hope you'll be very happy with us."


End file.
